So far, I have gone from retail monkey out of high school, to aircraft worker, to "manager", to computer tech. I can't say that I count the retail part, considering I knew I didn't want to do that for my entire life and did not think I would stay in that "career". I wouldn't count the aircraft worker title, although I did spend 5 1/2 years doing it, so I could have very easily done that kind of work my entire life. I guess I hold on to the "manager" title, though I only had it for about a year; having the title of manager does invoke a sense of prideful accomplishment, how ever desperate that may sound. Computer tech "Professional" is what I have thus far achieved. I haven't been doing it that long, compared to the rest of my occupational experiences, however I feel more accomplished in this field.
So, back to my first sentence: I "attempted" college right out of high school for about a month until my vehicle broke down and I couldn't afford to fix it to get to school. So I dropped out and hit the "work force". I figured it was not that big of a loss considering I had already been through 13 years of "school" (yes, K through 12 = 13 years minimum) and had no real concept of life "in the long-run". After landing my first good paying "gig" (aircraft) and remembering that was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, I went to technical college. I really use the term "college" loosely; I would prefer tech school. College just sounds too distinguished and adds to the assumption of obtaining a degree of some sort or having applicable credits towards a higher degree if one takes that road, which I am finally taking. I am not looking at this college attempt as taking college courses, though I have told almost everyone that I am going to college, but rather as technical training for each subject presented.
Growing up, I had the image of going to college as an attempt to obtain one goal, one career, one final economic/occupational destination. As we all should be aware of in this day and age, there won't be many of us average Joes or Janes doing one thing, let alone the first thing, for the rest of our lives when it comes to earning income or keeping ourselves busy. One article from MSNBC reads "Just 54 percent of students entering four-year colleges in 1997 had a degree six years later" -- hey, that's my high school graduating class. Sure, one can point out and speculate reasons for this, however, I have one to offer: we are easily bored .
I have always found it hard to concentrate on something when I did not have interest in it. Why am I so easily captivated by a movie, a song, a cartoon; none of which I might even like? Perhaps because I do not have to think to take in the information being projected. Why is it so easy to be entertained by useless transmissions of information and so difficult for me to take in the necessary instructions to be successful? How can "brain junk food" be so easily created and absorbed, yet when I want to learn something, I can hardly recall the point of the last paragraph I read in a text book?
Perhaps the solution would be to create the needed/ desired content in a format of brainless entertainment? (yes there is content being made: SAT Vocab, however, I would like to see a more less than obvious format) What if Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane wrote an episode with the goal of teaching me a subject from a book?
This post has totally deviated from my original thought, which is: I just read the first chapter in my Eng Comp text and started to write. I have received advice on what to expect, but I am going to take each assignment without assumption.
As I was reading I was thinking about the audience and tone for the papers mentioned in the unsolicited advice. I am not sure, but I think I will try to write how I "sing". When singing Christmas carols with the cub scouts last week, rather than attempting to sing the notes in my natural voice, I decided to impersonate a lower or more professional voice. Sure, some notes were a bit off because I could not take the voice to such low tones, but for the most part, I felt like it sounded better than my real voice. So perhaps my writing voice will take on the attitude/tone of a character from television, movies, or radio. Only time will tell if I have enough courage to do so, but the track record of this old horse is not in favor of that thought.
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